Postgraduate Course: Foundations of Economics (ECNM11086)

Course Outline
School	School of Economics	College	College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	This course covers what one would encounter in a typical intermediate undergraduate economics course. It consists of two parts - a two-week block of microeconomics and a two-week block of macroeconomics. Topics to be covered in the first block (microeconomics) include consumption, production, uncertainty and strategic interaction. The topics in the second block (macroeconomics) cover the basics of national income and macroeconomic modelling; the determinants of long-run economic growth, inflation and unemployment; money and interest rates and the role and influence of economic policy.
Course description	This course is designed to develop a solid understanding of the core economic models and insights from intermediate microeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics in a four-week period. The course is structured as a combination of daily lectures and tutorials (exercise classes) with extra reading to prepare for each class. The workload is heavy and consistent, both to cover the material and to adapt students to the pace of a graduate course. The material covered in the first block (microeconomics) includes the basics of consumer and producer theory, general equilibrium, intertemporal choice, game theory, and asymmetric information. In the second block (macroeconomics) students will discover how economies grow, why some countries have high inflation while others maintain stable prices, and why all countries have positive unemployment rates and sometimes experience recessions.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Flexible
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 51, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 36, Summative Assessment Hours 4, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 7 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 90 %, Coursework 10 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Written Exams 90% (two exams, 45% each), Coursework 10% (two project, 5% each)
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: demonstrate knowledge and understanding of core microeconomic principles and concepts such as opportunity cost, incentives, strategic thinking, marginal considerations, expectations and surprises, risk management etc. show understanding of the determinants of output, the analysis of economic growth, inflation and unemployment; money market; public sector debts and deficits; the role and influence of fiscal and monetary policy, and business cycles.